The move to online retailing is driving demand in other industries. This shortage will also drive the innovation to autonomous trucks.
America has a massive shortage of truck drivers. Joyce Brenny, head of Brenny Transportation in Minnesota, increased driver pay 15 percent this year to try to attract more drivers. Many of her drivers now earn $80,000, she says, yet she still can’t find enough people for the job.
About 51,000 more drivers are needed to meet the demand from companies such as Amazon and Walmart that are shipping more goods across the country, according to the American Trucking Associations. The driver shortage is already leading to delayed deliveries and higher prices for goods that Americans buy. The ATA predicts that it’s likely to get worse in the coming years.
Many trucking companies are so desperate for drivers that they are offering signing bonuses and pay raises. So why don’t more Americans want this job? We asked truck drivers who have been doing the job anywhere from four months to 40 years for their views.
Most said the answer is simple: The lifestyle is rough. You barely see your family, you rarely shower, and you get little respect from car drivers, police or major retailers. Michael Dow said he has been divorced twice because of trucking. Donna Penland said she gained 60 pounds her first year from sitting all day and a lack of healthful food on the road.
A few drivers told The Washington Post that they earn $100,000, but many said their annual pay is less than $50,000 (government statistics say median pay for the industry is $42,000). As for the bonuses, driver Daniel Gollnick said they are a “complete joke” because of all the strings attached.
Despite the hardships, half said they would recommend the job to friends and family, chiefly because, as Gollnick said, “it’s the easiest money you can get without a college degree.”
This shortage will also drive the innovation to autonomous trucks.
80,000 pounds at 70mph guided solely by hackable, human-coded, EMP-prone electronics.
Never gonna happen.
80,000 pounds at 70mph guided solely by a person prone to distraction, sleepiness, and overworked?
The autonomous vehicles are coming. There will be human restrictions at first that require a person behind the wheel, but eventually it will become good enough where people trust it to remove the human safety element. It is gonna be years down the road, but it is coming.
This should be a great time to be a trucker .
One Manufacturer I represent are having trucks
Line up to pick up product , get a call and pull out of line because they will make $1,000 more on a pick up across town in Minniapolis .
The hours , the drug tests , the inability to keep 2 log books , the inability to cheat over the legal time they can drive on the road , and the window shrinking where they are needed ( yes that’s coming ) all combines for a very good short term and very cloudy future .
80,000 pounds at 70mph guided solely by a person prone to distraction, sleepiness, and overworked?
Happens hundreds of thousands of times every day and night. I’d trust a weary experienced OTR hauler over a pimple-faced Silicon Valley dweller who has never sat in anything but a Prius any day.
It is gonna be years down the road, but it is coming.
And when the geo-synced GPS satellite fries, the country stops. See: Hughes Space and Communications Co, 1998.